


we don't fall far

by kuro49



Series: from New York with love [3]
Category: Suits (TV), White Collar
Genre: Gen, M/M, Pre-Slash, White Suits
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-07
Updated: 2013-01-07
Packaged: 2017-11-24 00:59:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/628493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kuro49/pseuds/kuro49
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Neal comes for a surprise visit. Mike is tempted to shut the door in the face of that Caffrey grin.</p>
            </blockquote>





	we don't fall far

**Author's Note:**

> Let’s just pretend Mike’s apartment is within Neal’s radius for the sake of coherence. Timeline wise, it's set between [you’re good but we’re better](http://archiveofourown.org/works/568857) and [we’re only friends, I swear](http://archiveofourown.org/works/605050). Also, partially inspired by this [graphic](http://whitesuits.tumblr.com/post/13695045222/christmas-calendar-gift-white-collar-suits).

Mike learns quickly. (That in itself is an understatement.)

So it doesn’t take much to understand that there is more to the 17 years old, Danny Brooks he meets in his last year of high school. And like always, it starts with an elbow between the ribs and a bad bad joke from Trevor that has Mike lifting his head from the desk to see the transfer student that sticks out from the crowd with both the untimely entrance and the bright blue eyes and even brighter smile.

There isn’t even a year of friendship between them but eight months are all it takes. Two weeks before their graduation, Danny learns that his name is really Neal. And when Danny runs the next day, Mike never expects to see his friend again.

So it makes him let out a breath he doesn’t even realize he is holding in when the first postcard finds its way to his mailbox, four months later. Grammy asks whom it is from, even though she has already seen the small DB initialled into the corner of the card from New York City, and it is a half-formed smile made of relief when he answers.

“Neal Caffrey.”

It is cheesy and a classic all on its own, and Mike has always known Neal to be a little bit of both.

 

“Surprise?”

He opens his door to the sight of an old friend, tilting his head casually like a friendly neighbour asking to borrow a cup of sugar.

Instead, Mike breathes out his greeting with a mangled laugh.

“You son of a bitch.”

And it is an easy return to who and how they have been before Danny’s first postcard and Neal’s last signature origami being tucked into his satchel. Neal returns Mike’s laugh with a grin of his own. “Still so elegant with your words, Mike.”

He wraps him in a brief hug before they both pull back, Neal to invite himself in, Mike to close the door behind Neal’s back.

“Please tell me you didn’t run, I’m not going to harbour an international fugitive in my apartment.”

“Don’t worry, it’s all legal.”

He extends his left foot out at Mike.

“You never told me you were into that stuff.”

“It’s a tracking anklet, Mike.” He rolls his eyes and sits down, all Caffrey charms and grace. “I’m on work release with the FBI.”

“They let you out?” Mike asks with enough incredibility in his voice to make Neal pull a face.

“Well, I ran first, and then Peter caught me… again,” Neal adds the last word, almost begrudgingly, but it is the small movement of his hand, like he means to brush it off, that allows Mike to pick up the hidden hint of awe and respect in the way Neal’s lips curves into the tiniest of smiles.

“Burke the jerk?” Mike wants to laugh at the situation if only because he remembers that one phone call Neal has made to Mike on his 21st birthday and his brief mention of a cop Neal memorizes as Burke.

“He’s good.” The ex-con nods, a little breathless, like he is just as astonished himself.

And it is more of a praise than a defence, and in all the years Mike knows, Neal isn’t impressed by just smarts. “I thought you were better.”

“We might be evenly matched…”

“You don’t look put out about that.” Mike offers, small smile twisting at his lips at the sight of his friend looking as close to star-struck as he could be. Neal glances up and finally looks carefully into Mike’s eyes before he admits.

“No, I guess I’m really not.”

 

“You’re so predictable.” Neal lifts up a random teapot when Mike is reheating a frozen pizza in the oven and glances in on the small plastic bag of green stuffed inside. Mike watches him as he pulls it out with a small grimace and extends the bag like it offends him.

It probably does.

Mike shrugs and takes it from between Neal’s fingers before putting it back into another convenient tin can he finds on the countertop. “Not mine. Trevor probably left it behind.”

“You’re still hanging around Trevor?” Neal frowns, distaste obvious at the way he mouths Trevor’s name around his tongue, “he is bad news, Mike.”

And it’s almost funny if it isn’t just a little bit sad. Mike shuts the lid on the can and turns to face his friend, raising a brow as he splays his hands out, unlike Neal’s familiar sleight of hand.

“None of us are exactly the shiny apple in the bunch, you know.”

 

Mike hasn’t been able to figure out who Neal has been trying to impress back then, can’t even begin to understand Danny’s intentions back when they are all still too young to see pass the bright blue eyes and easy smiles.

The second postcard comes, eventually, signed off by a Nick H., it is no Neal Caffrey, that’s for sure. Trevor asks, once, who keeps sending him postcards from Southern Europe and the rest of road trip America. Like the smallest surprise among days of the mundane, Mike tells Trevor off, that it is none of his business and doesn’t he have a thing with Jenny tonight.

When the door shuts behind his longest friend, Mike sits back against his bed, a mattress pushed up to the wall, and rests his head back. He thumbs the edge of the newest postcard from Madrid and wonders _when_ for the next one.

(Now, Mike understands that Neal has always been trying to please everyone.)

XXX Kuro


End file.
